 |
Joy Keeler |
Healthcare IT's Future Is Now
Joy Keeler
October 2009
Joy Keeler embarked on her health IT career when, as she says, "healthcare computer systems were not as widespread as they are today." All that started changing soon enough as modern information technology was introduced—first into healthcare administration and then clinical care. Inspired, Keeler began developing ideas for using IT to make the entire healthcare system more efficient and looking for ways to put her ideas into action.
That quest brought Keeler to MITRE, which has been steadily expanding and deepening its health work for the last five years. She joined the company in April 2007 and serves as its principal health information technology consultant for the Center for Transforming Health (CTH), which MITRE created to formalize and expand its involvement in health. Her work in advancing online health systems and promoting public-private collaboration makes Keeler a key player in raising the company's profile in the health IT community. It's a niche she relishes.
"It's a very rewarding role," she says. "Just as in other aspects of MITRE, you have a lot of opportunities to do interesting work and meet and work with bright and motivated people. And you can take your career many places."
Seeing Healthcare from All Sides
Keeler brings to her work a philosophy mirroring MITRE's approach to other national challenges and befitting the complexity of the nation's healthcare system: Solutions to complicated problems require a systems-wide perspective. "My perspective can be either from a patient's standpoint or a provider's standpoint," she says. "This dual outlook is a huge advantage, because it's important to understand the workflow. Healthcare in our country is so complex—the dynamics necessary for the care to be approved and delivered and paid for. Having a systems-wide view across all of that is very helpful."
Since joining MITRE, Keeler has applied that mindset in several ways. She is involved with MITRE's HealthLab project, which is designed to create a "demonstration and research space" initially on the company's McLean, Va., campus. Government officials and members of the private sector can come to the HealthLab and see for themselves what MITRE's researchers are learning about issues such as putting more health records online. They can also see prototypes of online health services demonstrated and learn of MITRE's varied health IT projects, ranging from the LAIKA system for electronic health records testing to helping the Food and Drug Administration with a large-scale IT acquisition to strengthen food and drug safety measures.
Keeler also helps lead industry outreach to potential MITRE partners in both the public and private sectors. One example is her work on the 2009 conference of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), a professional society devoted to the best possible use of IT in the healthcare industry. MITRE representatives have attended the conference—the largest such gathering in the U.S.—for several years. This year, Keeler (a HIMSS board member) and 12 of her MITRE colleagues attended, promoting collaboration among government officials and private IT companies. Keeler sees the involvement in such events as a way for MITRE to help key players forge partnerships for improved health IT.
"We're becoming well-known in the health IT industry," she says. "When I first came here, I think there were some people in the healthcare community who knew of MITRE. But because of the work all of us in CTH have done, our participation in efforts to define the future of health IT and healthcare is really palpable now."
The Time to Do the Right Thing
Throughout her career, Keeler has worked in various health roles, eventually spending 10 years at the University of Illinois in Chicago. She served as associate vice chancellor for health affairs and chief information officer for the university's Medical Center and Health Sciences Colleges, where she led a six-year strategic and technical drive to implement an advanced clinical information system. The center's electronic health record was honored with the Nicolas E. Davies Award of Excellence in 2001 and the Enterprise Value Award by CIO Magazine.
 |
Joy Keeler in Greenland, one of her favorite vacation destinations. |
Such accomplishments gave Keeler credentials as a leader in health IT—and earned her an interview with MITRE after a healthcare-related government assignment brought her to the Washington D.C. area. "It is up to the leadership to know and recognize influential people with the appropriate professional credentials in the industry," says Rob Jensen, executive director of CTH. "I knew Joy, with her background and reputation for service, would fit as part of our culture and with our team vision and goals."
The MITRE difference, as Keeler sees it, is "the commitment to developing strategies that aren't necessarily developed in a short period of time, but require time and thought and multiple areas of expertise." With healthcare now at the forefront of the public consciousness, she believes the industry will look for expertise based in a systems-wide view of complex issues—exactly what MITRE offers its sponsors.
"One of the nicest things about working at MITRE is that, as a corporation, we work in the public interest, and we give our people the time to do the right thing," she says.
When not working, Keeler enjoys a bustling family life. In fact, MITRE's commitment to work-life balance was a major reason she came aboard. She and her husband have six children between them, ranging in age from 12 to 21. Keeler also enjoys "adventures," as she puts it, to distant locales. One of her favorite destinations was Greenland, which captured her imagination with its relative isolation (it has a population of 57,000 in a country three times the size of Texas) and its scenic beauty.
—by Russell Woolard
Related Information
Articles and News
Technical Papers and Presentations
Websites
|
